They are supposed to be professionals. They are supposed to play through injury and pain, mental and physical.
But they are also human, as the Indiana Pacers demonstrated oh-so-sadly shortly after the first quarter of Sunday night's Game 7 loss in the NBA Finals at Oklahoma City as they came to the realization that they'd be trudged forward without their leader and best player following a devastating injury sustained by Tyrese Haliburton.
OKC eventually coasted to a 103-91 victory to capture that franchise's first-ever title. Indy is still waiting for the same ... and maybe it would've happened here with a healthy Haliburton, who scored nine points in seven minutes to open the game by nailing three 3-pointers.
But then ... an Achilles injury and all the ugly drama that went with it.
"It sucked the soul out of us," the Pacers' Obi Toppin said. "I ain't going to say out of everybody. But I don't feel like I played good because I was thinking about it the whole day and I felt like it was my fault."
This is "just sports'' ... but it's brutal stuff. The effort and energy and work and time and money that goes into building to this opportunity, only to see it stolen away by fate ...
And there was Haliburton, having attempted to plant his foot on a drive before flopping to the floor in agony, yelping and pounding his fist on the hardwood as the world watched.
"I felt like that was my fault, too," Toppin added. "Passed the ball to him and ... as soon as he went down, that (expletive) hurt. I ain't gonna lie.
"I was thinking about that the whole game."
And this is where the "supposed to be'' hits the fan. Of course it wasn't Obi's fault. Of course Indy isn't cursed. Of course fate can and does happen to all of us.
But the Pacers are now haunted by this, just as OKC is lifted by the result.
"It doesn't feel real," Finals MVP Shai Gilgeous-Alexander (29 points, five rebounds and 12 assists) of OKC said after the game. "So many hours. So many moments. So many emotions. So many nights of disbelief. So many nights of belief. It's crazy to know that we're all here, but this group worked for it. This group put in the hours, and we deserve this."
All true. But "it doesn't feel real''? The Pacers know the feeling.